PMS and PMDD can't be "cured." There's no magic solution, but that doesn't mean you have to wave the white flag. Use these tactics to improve your overall well-being and manage your symptoms naturally.

Healthcare spending increased at its fastest pace in more than three decades. That surge is attributed to the implementation of President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law, the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. "GDP growth would have ... been negative were it not for healthcare spending," said Harm Bandholz, chief economist at UniCredit Research in New York. Healthcare spending increased at a 9.9 percent annual rate, the quickest since the third quarter of 1980, and it contributed 1.1 percentage points to GDP growth.

Certainly we're growing older, fast and in great numbers. But at the same time, we are getting smarter and more valuable in our intellectual competence. Hopefully this can trade-off against the tendency to stagnate and withdraw from the mainstream of life.

By David Lawder WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A memo outlining the legislative agenda for Republicans in the House of Representatives lists replacement of President Barack Obama's healthcare law as a priority for the coming weeks but does not mention plans to tackle immigration reform. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor sent the memo to fellow Republicans as they returned from a two-week recess, employing a regular tool to help keep the party unified on its political message in the run-up to congressional elections in November. Republicans have put criticisms of Obama's healthcare reform law at the center of their efforts to wrest control of the Senate from Democrats and to boost their majority in the House. Cantor said House Republicans would work to "reform our healthcare system by replacing Obamacare with policies that improve patient choice, access to doctors and hospitals and lower costs." The memo also said the Republican-controlled House would pass permanent extensions of six temporary business tax breaks, including a credit for research and development activities.

By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - Leading British scientists called on the government on Wednesday to act now to save the nation's pharmaceutical industry from being swallowed up in a wave of consolidation driven by overseas rivals. In a statement prompted by a planned $100 billion (59.26 billion pounds) takeover of Britain's AstraZeneca by rival U.S. drugmaker Pfizer, leaders in pharmacology, biology, chemistry and biochemistry said the entire UK life sciences sector risked losing its lead. "The UK has been a world leader in medicines research and development, but recent closures and restructuring put this position under threat," they said. AstraZeneca, Britain's second-biggest drugmaker behind GlaxoSmithKline, is an important part of the sector and employs nearly 7,000 staff in the country.

When they're not making the hearts of former '90s girls flutter, Nick Carter and Jordan Knight are busy taking good care of themselves -- at the gym, in the kitchen and even in the bedroom. "Getting eight hours of sleep and trying to go to bed early -- that's what I love," Carter said during a recent visit to HuffPost Live. "Sleeping is awesome," Knight agreed. Check out the clip above for more from the guys on when and how they feel their best.

Not allowing e-cigarettes to be used indoors is a smart move for cities and towns that want to preserve the health of their community. Adding e-cigarettes to smoke-free laws is also practical. People who want to smoke e-cigarettes can continue to do so in the same places where regular cigarettes are smoked, while everyone else can continue to breathe clean air wherever they work, learn and play.

LONDON (Reuters) - Leading British scientists called on the government on Wednesday to act now to save the nation's pharmaceutical industry from being swallowed up in a wave of consolidation driven by overseas rivals.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The ultraviolet lamps used in some nail salons to dry and cure nail polish deliver the same hazardous rays as tanning beds, but it would take many manicures to actually cause damage, suggests a new study.

The day I found my purpose really was like being born again. It was more than just figuring out what I wanted to do with my life, it was feeling like I finally belonged here in the world; I finally stopped feeling like a mistake.

By Andrew M. Seaman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The ultraviolet lamps used in some nail salons to dry and cure nail polish deliver the same hazardous rays as tanning beds, but it would take many manicures to actually cause damage, suggests a new study. After testing 17 different lamps in nail salons, researchers calculated that it would take between eight and 208 visits - depending on the machine - to damage skin cells in a way that raises cancer risk. “I wouldn’t tell a patient to stop going unless they were going multiple times a month,” lead author Dr. Lyndsay Shipp from Georgia Regents University in Augusta told Reuters Health. Exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation is a risk factor for most skin cancers, according to the American Cancer Society. via Health News Headlines - Yahoo News Read More Here..

By Heide Brandes OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - The autopsy of an inmate who died, apparently of a heart attack, during a botched execution was begun on Wednesday in Oklahoma, while Governor Mary Fallin called for an investigation into what went wrong in the death chamber. Convicted murderer and rapist Clayton Lockett died on Tuesday minutes after a doctor had called a halt to the procedure because of problems with the lethal injection, raising questions about new death penalty cocktails used by Oklahoma and other states. The autopsy will examine the injection sites on Lockett's arms and the toxicology of the drugs in his system that were administered in the lethal injection, according to medical examiner's spokeswoman Amy Elliott said. The governor told a news conference she had called for investigations not only into Lockett's cause of death, but into whether the Department of Corrections followed execution protocols and even the protocols themselves. via Health News Headlines - Yahoo News Read More Here..

The Obama administration is seeking ways to curb tax-dodging by U.S. businesses that reincorporate overseas, a U.S. Treasury official told Reuters on Wednesday, highlighting growing concern about deals known as "inversions." "Cracking down on companies that reincorporate overseas to reduce their U.S. taxes is a priority for the administration," the official said in an email responding to questions about a pending administration proposal and recent events. U.S. drugmaker Pfizer Inc said on Monday it has made takeover bids for UK rival AstraZeneca Plc in a possible deal to merge the two into a UK holding company with a UK tax domicile. President Barack Obama's 2015 budget, introduced in early March, includes a proposal to crack down on inversions by making them more difficult to do with higher minimum levels of foreign ownership required. Another vehicle for tightening the inversion rules as Obama proposes could be measures moving through Congress to renew dozens of unrelated temporary tax laws known as "extenders," though analysts said this was only a remote possibility.

So rather than hiding under a rock, I have learned that processing each lesson the universe sends me is essential for my well-being. I have learned that if I don't want to have to learn that lesson again, I need to do three things: Eat it, digest it and eliminate it.

Life is so much sweeter lived slowly. But I know we all must come to that conclusion in our own time. The commitment to not just succeed but thrive is a personal choice and the time often comes after a wake-up call.

NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) - Merck & Co Inc is looking to sell a big portfolio of mature drugs that could fetch more than $15 billion, according to people familiar with the matter, as the U.S. drugmaker continues to streamline businesses to focus on high-growth areas. Merck, which is also in the process of selling its $14 billion consumer healthcare unit, is working with an investment bank on the potential sale of the off-patent drugs, which could draw interest from generic drugmakers, the people said. Sanofi SA , being advised by Evercore Partners Inc , is also in the market with its aging drug portfolio, which could fetch between $7 billion and $8 billion, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. doctors said on Wednesday they have succeeded in coaxing the regeneration of muscle tissue lost in people who suffered traumatic injuries, including wartime bomb wounds, with a new type of treatment that uses material from a pig's bladder. Implanting the pig material at the wound site enticed the patient's own stem cells - master cells that can transform into various kinds of cells in the body - to become muscle cells and regenerate tissue that had been lost, the researchers said. The research was backed by $3 million in funding over five years from the U.S. Defense Department, said Dr. Stephen Badylak of the University of Pittsburgh, who led the study. Thousands of American troops have been left with serious physical impairments after sustaining wounds involving major loss of muscle tissue in roadside bombings and other incidents since 2001 in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Thriving involves health and wellness. Huffington suggests that we might all draw more, and benefit, from our innate gifts of wisdom, generosity and kindness. I do believe that most patients want their physicians to thrive. I, for one, want my doctors to be well-rested and content.

By Megan Gannon, News Editor Published: 04/30/2014 02:25 PM EDT on LiveScience Face transplants promise dramatic results for people left disfigured after animal attacks, fires, shootings and other grisly incidents, researchers say. But the procedure is still in its infancy. It can cost well over $300,000 and is not covered by insurance companies. The surgery raises ethical dilemmas, too, because it's not life-saving like a liver transplant. ...

By Bahar Gholipour, Staff Writer Published: 04/29/2014 01:56 PM EDT on LiveScience How well a person recovers from traumatic events may depend on in part on their self-esteem, according to researchers who examined the effects of a major earthquake on the survivors' brains. The researchers had conducted brain scans of university students for a study before the Great East Japan Earthquake struck in 2011. After the earthquake, they repeated the scans on 37 of the same people, and tracked stress-induced changes in their brains in the following months. ...

When people spread it too thinly.

Marmite is a tricky beast to get right, and if someone's Marmiteing for you it's hard to nitpick without seeming, well, nitpicky. On the other hand - I don't mean to cast aspersions here - but it it seems to be a rule of thumb that those who spread Marmite too thinly are inevitably also purveyors of cold toast.

Somehow as I was walking -- and often running -- through my younger years, I thought that I was on my way to arrive at some "place." This place was the goal, and there would be a "grown up" Robin there waiting to welcome me into the full wonder of maturity and adulthood.

The above steps take a certain level of deliberate mental focus and sustained effort. As you complete your savoring moment, surrender. Sink into the experience, softening the need to do, notice, or direct anything. Give yourself a breath or two to just steep.

By Julien Ponthus and Mark John PARIS (Reuters) - General Electric's overtures to the power business of France's former industrial beacon Alstom have shown again how the French state, for all its interventionist zeal, has limited room for maneuver against big business. Citing "patriotic concern" over loss of jobs and control of a group with a history stretching back 86 years, President Francois Hollande's government leapt into action to find ways of countering the offer after news of it emerged last week. While Germany's Siemens - billed by Paris as a possible white knight - still has a month to make its intentions clear, Alstom's decision to review GE's $16.9-billion bid makes the U.S. giant the clear favorite to secure the turbine and grid assets that make up the bulk of Alstom revenues. If GE succeeds, it will mark the latest climb-down for a two-year-old government which has already ended up on the losing side of public stand-offs in the telecom and steel industries.

“To be able to see the elderly dancing and spinning with autonomy, balance and a cognitive awareness of their space and body helped us understand ways to join useful exercise with a pleasant activity,” said lead author Eliane Gomes da Silva Borges, of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro state in Rio de Janeiro. With aging, muscles weaken and sensory mechanisms that help sustain balance are less sharp, which can lead to falls as well as limiting a person’s physical activity. Nursing home residents tend to have less freedom and fewer opportunities for physical activity, so it’s all the more important to find ways for them to exercise to preserve their strength and balance, the researchers write. “We have to realize that the practice of physical activity is beneficial because it strengthens the musculoskeletal system and professionals (in nursing homes) can and must help,” Borges told Reuters Health in an email. via Health News Headlines - Yahoo News Read More Here..

LIVERPOOL (MedPage Today) -- Patients with rheumatoid arthritis who have interstitial lung disease (ILD) appeared to have a survival advantage if treated with rituximab rather than with a tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitor, a researcher said here. via MedPageToday.com - medical news plus CME for physicians Read More Here..

LONDON (AP) — Bacteria resistant to antibiotics have now spread to every part of the world and might lead to a future where minor infections could kill, according to a report published Wednesday by the World Health Organization. via Health News Headlines - Yahoo News Read More Here..

By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - The spread of deadly superbugs that evade even the most powerful antibiotics is no longer a prediction but is happening right now across the world, United Nations officials said on Wednesday. Antibiotic resistance has the potential to affect anyone, of any age, in any country, the U.N.'s World Health Organisation (WHO) said in a report. "We have a big problem now, and all of the trends indicate the problem is going to get bigger, said Keiji Fukuda, the WHO’s assistant director-general for health security. In its first global report on antibiotic resistance, with data from 114 countries, the WHO said superbugs able to evade event the hardest-hitting antibiotics - a class of drugs called carbapenems - have now been found in all regions of the world. via Health News Headlines - Yahoo News Read More Here..

By Kylie MacLellan and Ben Hirschler LONDON (Reuters) - MPs intend to investigate U.S. drugmaker Pfizer's planned $100 billion (59.21 billion pounds) takeover of British rival AstraZeneca in a bid to ensure scientific research and jobs are protected. "We will see how events pan out over the next few days, but clearly given the scale of the proposed merger it is important that we consider the impact not just on shareholders but also on employees and the wider interests of the UK." AstraZeneca, Britain's second-biggest drugmaker behind GlaxoSmithKline, is an important part of the life sciences sector and employs nearly 7,000 staff in the country. The committee's chairman Andrew Bailey said it would be looking to hold an inquiry "pretty quickly", and those called to give evidence were likely to include ministers such as Business Secretary Vince Cable and representatives from the Treasury. "In AstraZeneca we have a company that amounts to 2.3 percent of our total exports, is a world leader in research in pharmaceuticals and is very strategically positioned in this country." Committee member Katy Clark said Pfizer's management would also probably be among those called to any inquiry.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Scientists implanted thin sheets of scaffolding-like material from pigs into a few young men with disabling leg injuries — and say the experimental treatment coaxed the men's own stem cells to regrow new muscle.

It's okay that things are difficult. That's part of what gives them their savor. Not all fulfilling experiences are grounded in some difficulty, but many are. Honor yourself for the hard things you're dealing with. And be aware of the things that are not difficult in your life, including the things that do support you.